Recap of Pakistan’s Premier Digital Design Conference: ND2C
ND2C (National Digital Design Conference) is Pakistan’s premier digital design conference that is bringing together over 1,000 local and international design professionals at one place! Imagine the creative energy. The event kicked off on the 23rd of September 2017 in Islamabad, and is a two-day event that will cater to creative individuals in the country. Macworld Pakistan is proud to be on board as Exclusive Technology Media Partner for the event.
Essentially the core principle behind Design Thinking is to improve the creative confidence of individuals, teams and organizations to explore areas of significant opportunity which are also complicated by substantial ambiguity.
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IBM, main partner for the event, is one of the few companies globally that have been on top of Design Thinking and have more than a hundred thousand employees worldwide that have been trained specifically for it. Lara Hanlon – Designer and Design Thinker based out of Dublin, Ireland, led the first session of the day. The workshop conducted by Lara Hanlon, presented a challenge to the participants that focused on “Design a better way for a professional to present themselves and their work to future employers”
An IBM representative speaking at the event said:
“IBM has the largest practice around the world and we have 47 design studios globally and we are working with customers here in Pakistan and we are hiring local people on Design Thinking. At present we are also working with academia to develop further on this area”.
“At IBM we do two things; one is we help businesses to transform digitally and secondly, we create efficiency. The important thing in transformation is that it’s all about customer experience and user experience that helps adoption towards a digital economy. Design stands at the core of it.”
Hamayun Sajjad, Group Executive Vice President for the Innovation Department at United Bank Ltd. shared the journey of setting up Pakistan’s first Digital Design Lab in collaboration with IBM. This particular session was a great way to start the event and get the spirits high, as it was a real local success story of how large organizations are integrating design thinking in the modern business landscape.
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Careem Pakistan’s Managing Director Junaid Iqbal gave an electrifying talk on the Careem brand and what makes their brand identity great. In addition to this, panel discussions, workshops, design challenges and networking sessions ran through the day that ended at 8pm!
The last talk for the day was by Debbie Millman, who took everyone down the memory lane with her story on MySpace and its popularity. The session for day one concluded on the note,
‘Branding now is a profound manifestation of the human spirit’
Creative Fair
A platform created on the basis of reclaiming your area of expertise by showcasing some of your best work to an exclusive community of design individuals including agencies, entrepreneurs, design thinkers, technologists, development professionals, curators, institutions and educators among others. The Creative Fair was an exhibit providing a premium opportunity to network with the most creative minds in the city and around the world. The showcase included the works of:
- Sana Kirmani, Illustrator and Product Designer
- Team Phuljari, (Stress-relieving colouring books for adults)
- Umair Najeeb Khan, self-taught digital artist
- Zainab Zoeb, Graphic Designer
- Amal Chughtai, Graphic Designer
- Umme Aimen Kazmi, Quirky Kahaniyan
- Ayesha Sohail, Illustrator & Letterer
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Key Takeaways
Some of the key takeaways from the event include:
– Exploring Design Thinking activities with industry leaders like IBM, BBDO, ICE Animations, Creative Chaos and the like, whereas academia included IVSAA on the top!
– The center point of design thinking is the human element. The sessions and conversations today focused on learning about the importance of empathy in design and user experience. Ali Rez from BBDO delivered a session on how the best online is offline, focusing on actual interactions and experiences and putting those into action.
– With a power packed agenda for the day, the event brought together great opportunities for learning, cross-industry interaction and networking, collaborations, while at the same time challenging oneself to create new experiences for the future.
– Though there may be several challenges for designers and creative heads at the moment in the local industry, the pace at which things are moving in the industry is a great sign of what’s to come!
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Upward and Onward
Being the first gathering of its kind on this magnitude, the event garnered great traction from the business, digital and creative community. For us, the most endearing fact was that companies like IBM and PTCL stepped forward in supporting unique initiatives like these, that positions their brands positively.
Attendees and participants were all praise on the effort made by the organizing team and the creative community at large in putting up a great show, the first of its kind, and a much needed one in Pakistan. Backing everyone on who is already looking forward to attending this creative fair every year!
One of the participants from the event while speaking to the IDG team said:
“This event is the one event which we found to be the most relevant one as it brought in the designer community, the tech community, and most importantly the businesses who are transforming themselves.”
Stay tuned for more on the PTCL and IVS Design Challenge, Behance Portfolio review, workshops and word from the speakers and participants as the Macworld team takes on ND2C 2017 day two!
